Government Begins Process of Paying up the Media Ksh 2.5Bn Dues

The Government has made it public that it is working on clearing 2.5 billion shillings outstanding balances it owes the media for advertising.

The decision when fully put into action will bring to end battles from the media to have the government pay up its dues.

ICT Cabinet Secretary informed the press that the government had embarked on plans to clear the 2.5 billion shillings it owed the media. Mucheru spoke during the release of the Media Landscape Report 2019 saying the decision was informed by President Uhuru’s directive that the National and County governments pay up their dues.

“As the government, we will continue to invest and ensure the Government Advertising Agency (GAA) pays on time as per the president’s directive. I am informed that Gitagama (Nation Media Group CEO) knows that he will be paid today. We are actually paying billions of shillings at once,” said the CS.

Mucheru added that the aim of the agency was to strengthen and develop the advertising industry and that they were now working with the Ministry to ensure that it was doing it in the right way and have communicated as much to media owners.

Mucheru noted that the government uses the media to communicate with its people and accounts for 5 percent of the advertising industry.

“This industry is driven by advertising and the media houses should realize that the government’s aim is to communicate to its people and not to necessarily advertise. We have many forms we can communicate through,” Mucheru said.

Media house managers have for some time complained of business paralysis caused by the government’s accrued dues. The monies that have accumulated over time have in one instance been rocked by corruption allegations that led to arrest of an official at the agency in 2018. Below are the dues owed to respective media houses before the Government embarked on paying up.

• Standard Group -931 million shillings
• Nation Media Group -835 million shillings
• MediaMax Network Ltd -462 million shillings
• Royal Media Services- 60 million shillings
• Radio Africa Group – 423 million shillings